10: How do animals think? Animal cognition in human context

In “The Descent of Man” Darwin described the “difference in mental power between the highest ape and the lowest savage” as “immense” – but later on the same page he also noted that there was “no fundamental difference between man and the higher mammals in their mental faculties”. Ever since Darwin debate has raged back and forth over the degree of similarity between human and nonhuman thinking. We shall consider this question in light of the latest research on the ability of animals to reason, remember, communicate, form con-cepts, and understand each other’s states of mind.